Memoirs of a Bad Girl
by Fancyeyes
Summary: 17 yr old Lily Potter wakes up in St. Mungos with no memory of the past 6 months and a new habit of seeing dead people. They say they're there to help the spunky 7th year, and with a Malfoy as a guard and her old forbidden crush, Teddy, tutoring her, even the most independent Potter can admit she needs it. Will she become another tragedy or can they save her? MATURE. See profile.
1. Chapter 1

**Memoirs of a Bad Girl**

**Warnings:** Smut, language, violence (pretty much exactly all the fun stuff that a Mature rating implies)

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything except for the facts that come from LAOT.

**Author's Note:** Welcome! I'm not usually a fan of long Author's notes before the good stuff, but I wouldn't want anyone to give up on the story because they were confused by something.

So firstly, while this story is a follow up to my Marauders' Era fic _Love and Other Tragedies_, it's not a prerequisite for enjoying it. All themes, original characters, and plot lines that happen to appear will be reintroduced as if they are brand new- because, after all, this story is written in Lily Luna's perspective and it would all be new to her.

If you're not a fan of Jily fanfiction, and not interested in taking the time to read all 200,000+ words of LAOT, I'll give you a quick rundown. The main thing you should know is that it ends completely in Cannon. Everything we know about the Marauders, Snape, and Lily are exactly as they happen in the books. The one difference is that in the beginning of the story Lily and Sirius are dating.

**Full Summary:** A collision of the past and present in a fight for the future. 17 year old Lily Potter wakes up with no memory of where she's been for the past six months. What she does know is that she is being haunted by the past…literally, and she's the only one who can see those who died to give her the life she has always taken for granted. With a Malfoy for a bodyguard and a forbidden crush acting as her tutor, she must do more than uncover the truth about the past. She must become a girl worth their sacrifice and more than just a bad girl.

Lily Evans, Baker (Harland) Simmons, James Potter, Sirius Black, Fred Weasley, Cedric Diggory, and all those loved ones lost must help her unravel a mystery that dips into a time before her father was the boy-who-lived and spreads across two wars that will put the fate of Hogwarts into the hands of a very bad girl.

Pairings: Cannon, Lily/Scorpius, Lily/Teddy

Cannon compliant, but with the explanations of the Marauders given in Love and Other Tragedies applied.

**Prologue **

_Faster, faster, or they'll catch you. _

Those were her only thoughts as she pushed her weak legs to carry her deeper through the thick world of green and brown that she'd been born into only a moment ago. She didn't know why she was running, only that if she stopped it would mean death.

Her hands were synched together at the wrist, leaving festering blisters and oozing sores beneath the unkind manacles. Helplessly she tripped over a fallen log and was without a way to catch her flailing body as her head made contact with a jagged rock on the forest's crowded floor. Blood spilled down her face, staining the vision of her right eye so severely that she was forced to blink rapidly against the onslaught.

It didn't stop her though. Oh, no. Dirt and twigs clung to what wet body as if she'd been rolled in a vat of glue. She ran on and on until fatigue took its hold, and clumsily she bounced off the trees that jumped into her path.

One misplaced foot and she was on the ground.

_Get up. Get up. _Her brain urged, but her body was a traitor, wrought with rebellious exhaustion. _They'll catch you. Faster. You have to move faster. _

But she could not move and soon she could not even think. All she could do was accept the darkness that rained down on her.

**0000000**

**Chapter One**

"**A Lily by Any Other Name…"**

With heavy eyelids and a puckered frown, I opened my eyes lying in a hospital bed to a curtain of soft colored crimson locks.

I knew it wasn't mine. I had red hair, but it wasn't Weasley red. The hair color that slumped on my shoulder was not as light as Uncle George's or as ginger as Uncle Ron's, but it was undeniably Weasley- an array of shades that uniquely belonged to Great Britain's most notorious muggle loving family.

"Ginny." The hoarse name came out of my lips as I brushed my face free of her cherry strands.

The movement brought Mum around and her amber eyes went greedily to my face.

"Thank Merlin, Lily. You're awake."

"Lyla, Ginny. My name is Lyla." My voice was an ugly pitch, coming out in choppy gasps.

I expected the commonplace sigh of exasperation not the watery smile full of wistfulness that came instead.

"Maybe when you start calling me Mum again, I'll start calling you Lyla."

A tight burning in my wrist called my attention away from responding, and I groaned wiggling in the papery gown as I brought the bandaged skin up to examine. They were taped and so heavily padded that I couldn't tell what wounds that lay beneath.

"Why am I in St. Mungos? What's going on?"

Ginny's face stilled until it settled into an expression of careful concern and reluctance.

"It's okay. You're okay… I'm just going to go find your father."

Exhaustion clung to the lithe muscles of her athletic figure as she left the private room, leaving me with nothing to do but stare after her. The tacky patterned curtain that had been pulled closed over the door's slight window not only blocked out curious onlookers, but also shut me off from the world beyond.

"'Lily' isn't such a dreadful name is it?" A voice echoed through the room that my gaze had left empty while a tickle ran up my neck and settled in my ears.

My gasp of surprise didn't even register through my damaged vocal chords.

Where only moments before the air had shimmered with nothing more than dust particles, there now stood a slim girl staring at me expectantly. Just like mum and I, she was a redhead, but where ours hung straight hers was an avalanche of curls. She was beautiful, but in a different way than I was.

She cleared her throat and I realized she was still waiting for an answer to her question.

"I suspect it's against nurses' policy to just go popping into patient's rooms unannounced, especially to Harry Potter's daughter." She needed to know who was in charge of this show. I wasn't going to be pushed around, not even to answer a stupid useless question.

Her pink lips quirked to the side allowing the slightest bit of unwilling amusement as she turned towards the rectangular window opposite the door. She ran a lazy finger down the glass, leaving a streak in its wake.

"So it's safe to say that you don't have a problem with the Potter portion of your name. I'm curious what could be so offensive about 'Lily'."

Whoever she was, she was right about one thing. You couldn't have pried my surname out of my cold dead hands. I was a Potter and had no intention of ever giving up the perks that came along with it. I opened my mouth to tell her so when the door opened and Dad came rushing in with Mum at his tail.

He opened his arms wide, but then stopped halfway and gingerly took my hand instead like I was fragile.

"It's so good to see you awake. The Healers assured us it was just a matter of time, but… I needed to see for myself that you were okay."

Ginny's eyes searched the room inquisitively. "Who were you talking to, Lily?"

She was gone. The young redheaded girl had disappeared in a split second. I'd barely noticed the tingle in my ears when mum and dad entered.

Was I losing my mind? Was that why I was here? Because I'd hit my head or gone round the bend. I shook my head- half to clear my mind and half to dismiss Ginny's question.

"Can you tell me the last thing you remember, Lyla?" Harry still had my hand grasped in his. He never called me Lily anymore, unlike Mum.

"Harry," She scolded him looking alarmingly like Grandmum. "Do you have to do that right now?"

"I was packing my trunk the night before holiday- no, that's not right. Maybe I was eating breakfast the next morning…" I ignored her, fighting through fuzzy memories. What was the big deal? "If I fell off the Hogwarts Express or something embarrassing like that I'd just rather not know. I'm sure everyone will take pleasure in recapping my shame once school starts in two weeks."

I wanted to question Ginny's cringe, but Harry gripped my hand tighter forcing my attention back to him. I was startled by the intensity that sparked his infamously green eyes.

"Think very hard… Try to imagine the very last thing you can: what you were doing, what you were thinking, who you were talking to…"

Harry had never been scary to me. I mean, yes, theoretically I knew he was the Head of the Auror Department and had vanquished the most evil wizard to ever live, but he'd always just been Dad to me. He was the weak link on the parenting food chain. Ginny was the one to look out for. She was a master of coming up with the most creatively evil punishments. The worst Harry would do was sentence you to a week with no dessert and then forget halfway through.

The look in his eye scared me now though. It frightened me enough to actually do what he said, which was an occurrence so rare it was nearly extinct.

My mind hadn't felt funny until I started poking around in it, digging through the sand that seemed to fill it up, because that's what it felt like. Like someone had unloaded a beach in my brain hoping the sand would cover up an ocean of memories that were lost to me. The first semi clear thing I could recall was eating breakfast before boarding the Hogwarts Express home for Christmas. My eyes glazed over as I tried to immerse myself into the memory.

"I was eating a muffin with…with Dabney. No, maybe it wasn't her…I was eating alone thinking about-… It was something I didn't want to do. I'd just finished and I was dragging my feet about going to the train. I couldn't stop thinking about-."

I snapped my teeth shut as I finally recalled exactly what it was I hadn't wanted to discuss with my parents.

"Yes, you ate breakfast with Dabney Giles. She left early to retrieve something she'd forgotten from her dorm. You left the Great Hall by yourself and then what?" Harry prompted me with careful words that came so easy to him it was like he'd heard them a million times.

I tried for him- I really did, but every time I scooped at the sand covering my memories the sides would slide in and refill it.

"I don't even remember leaving the table… What's this about anyways? Just spit it out. I'd like to know why the bloody hell I'm in St. Mungos during holiday instead of enjoying my new presents. By the way I expect extra after enduring this trauma."

Ginny stepped forward to take my hand from Dad, but there was so much pity on her face I couldn't stand it. I snatched it back.

"Tell me right now! Quit staring at me like that!"

"After breakfast you left the Great Hall and no one saw you again. Once you didn't arrive at King's Cross we started questioning students, and they all said the same thing. No one remembered seeing you after breakfast. The Aurors organized a task force and the whole Wizarding World was searching for you, but it was like you'd vanished into thin air. We brought in every known or suspected surviving Death Eater not in Azkaban and administered Veritisum Serum, but all our leads came up dry… A week ago you were found near a village in the middle of the woods."

"Faster, faster, or they'll catch you." My mouth moved slowly along the words as I remembered sprinting through the forest in a haze.

"What?" Harry's eyes grew wide like I'd unleashed a clue. "Do you remember something?"

"All I remember is being in the forest and thinking 'faster, faster, or they'll catch you,' but it wasn't like I had come up with the words myself. It was like someone told me that. I just can't remember who or why." I explained.

The forest had felt like a dream, and I shuddered looking down at my cloth wrapped wrists recalling the blood that had oozed beneath my constraints.

"Did I at least miss the first week of school? I feel like I should get something out of this."

"Lyla." Harry prompted gently before Ginny finished for him.

"You missed the whole term."

…

The whole term? The _whole _term?

They couldn't possibly mean that I'd missed six entire months? That I'd missed Christmas presents, all the Quidditch matches I'd been looking forward to, the Victory Ball that I already had the perfect gown for, and my exams (okay, so that was actually kind of a relief).

For possibly the first time in my entire life I was speechless. I felt a strange bubbling in the bottom of my stomach that welled up like multiplying suds in a bath. The sensation filled me up until it sizzled in my eyes. I was so unaccustomed to whatever this was it paralyzed me in the bed. What was this?

My parents stared at me. Concerned, Ginny reached out but I flinched away from her touch and looked resolutely towards the ceiling.

"Where's Tabatha?" My voice was a screech.

Stung by my rejection, she clammed up, stepping away from the bed, but I felt no remorse. All I could feel was the unfamiliar stinging in my chest.

"She's with the twins and Mia." Harry was between us again. It was a place he'd grown rather familiar with over the past seventeen years.

I clenched my eyes shut, angry. Tabatha would want to be here. They'd kept her away, and I all wanted was to be immersed in her embrace, even if it was something I hadn't allowed from my nanny since I'd turned four and decided I was too old for hugs.

Tabatha had been a constant figure in my life since before I could remember. For a few awkward months back when I'd started basic school, I'd taken to introducing her as my 'other' mum. It had led to some confusion with my teacher and the other workers, especially since Harry had been particularly busy at work that year and Mum and Tabatha were the only ones picking me up and dropping me off.

There had actually been an expose published in the ever reliable _Witch Weekly_ detailing the scandalous secret life of Quidditch Hero Ginny Potter and her lesbian affair behind the Boy-Who-Lived's back. It was my very first run in with the media (I still have it saved somewhere I'm sure. After all, it was bloody hilarious), but it certainly hadn't been my last.

All three of them- Harry, Ginny, and Tabatha- had sat me down for one of their infamous talks. They'd explained that while Tabatha lived with us, took care of me, and took great pleasure in punishing my "sassy" mouth, just like my parents did, she was not in fact my mum. She was our nanny and housekeeper.

I found this to be a great injustice to Tabatha. How was it fair that she had to deal with my fits, tantrums, and outbursts, but got none of the credit? I might have been a difficult child, but I fancied myself a warrior for integrity. In protest I've called Mum and Dad by their first names ever since. Tabatha claimed this was just the "silliest bunch of nonsense she'd ever heard," but I was pretty sure she secretly adored it.

Tabatha was sneaky like that.

"Your siblings and Tabatha will be allowed to come see you, but first it's very important that you try and remember anything about where you were or what happened to you." Harry's emerald eyes still burned with intensity, and immediately I was reminded of the woman who'd appeared and disappeared from the room like a figment of my imagination.

I don't know how I hadn't seen it before. It wasn't like the colors favored in the way that people often have green eyes but in different shades. No, the girl's eyes had been exactly the same as Albus'. The eyes my brother got directly from our father, who had gotten them from Lily Evans. Those eyes were just as synonymous with our family, as the shades of red hair were with the Weasleys.

"If you're worried about the pictures it's okay, Lily." Ginny misinterpreted my reluctant silence, snapping me back to the question that hung in the air unanswered.

Oh, fuck. Of course the pictures had made their stunning debut across the pages of _Witch Weekly_ by now. It had been the very thing that made me dread getting on Hogwarts Express six months ago. I wasn't ashamed of the pictures. They were actually kind of beautiful. I'd given my permission for them to be published after all, but that didn't mean I was looking forward to my parents' reaction.

"You saw them?"

"I'd wager everyone in the Wizarding World and probably a few muggles have seen them, Lily Potter." Ginny's tawny eyes flashed with suppressed annoyance. "They're calling it 'the bum that sold a million copies'."

Harry visibly shuddered, and blinked rapidly as if trying to erase an image from his memories.

An odd sound caught between a cough and a nervous chortle erupted from the back of my throat.

"And you're not going to try and punish me?"

"We thought you were dead, Lily!" Her outburst took me off guard. She shook with some intangible emotion I couldn't identify. Pain brimmed in her welling tears. I'd never seen her cry before, not even the happy kind. "We've been sick with grief. Every Auror in the department have worked themselves into the ground trying to find you. James took off the whole season to help, and your father spends more nights at the office than he does at home… Whatever silly rebellious things that happened in the past don't matter right now. What matters is that you're alive and you're here."

The action she'd been holding back ever since I'd woken up finally overcame her as she took me in her arms. I didn't push her away or try to wiggle from her grasp even when my wrists that were stuffed between us throbbed from the fierceness.

"I told you everything I remember." I told them calmly after she'd released me. "I remember eating breakfast the morning holiday started, and then nothing."

Reclining back into the pillows, I closed my eyes. I felt tired, exhausted from the sand covered memories that weighed down my mind.

Sleep came so swiftly I didn't realize I was dreaming until I was lying on my back in the grass field beside the Burrow.

The sky was vividly blue and the clouds as stark white as the linens Grandmum had hung to dry in the breeze.

A boy with pink hair leaned over me blocking my view.

But I already knew what was going to happen. This wasn't a dream. It was a long forgotten memory. An important one, but one I didn't even know I could still recall in such pristine clarity.

His lean preteen body cast a shadow over mine, and I scowled up at him.

"Move, Teddy."

"I'll move if you tell me what you're doing." He bargained with a grin. Sweat collected along his magenta hairline, making me feel even hotter in the sweltering summer heat.

I didn't want to tell him. This was a private matter. One between me and the sun, but the thing about the sun was that it was always up for another play date tomorrow. Sitting up, the world wobbled as my equilibrium readjusted. Hours had passed since I started my investigation.

"Are you lot still playing Flat Quidditch?"

Flat Quidditch was the solution Teddy had concocted for all the young cousins who weren't old enough to fly brooms yet. It was just like regular Quidditch, except we played it on the ground and Teddy had gotten Aunt Hermione to charm a Snitch so it only flew where we could catch it. Teddy was smart like that, always inventing fun games or solving problems. I'd overheard James saying that it was okay because he wasn't all swotty about it like Uncle Percy.

"Okay, how about a trade then?" Teddy folded his legs and sat beside me on the grass. He'd easily caught my attempt to change the subject.

I wasn't even six yet, and I'd already discovered the advantages of my age. I could make anyone do just about anything I wanted all because they thought I was too young to have ulterior motives. Teddy was infuriatingly adept at treating me as an equal though. I always had to step up my game if I wanted to pull something over on him.

"I'll give you something if you tell me what you were doing?"

He was smart to tempt me with prizes.

"How do I know it's something I want? I already have lots of toys." I pursed my lips as I considered.

"Oh, this is something special. It's something you don't have, and once you have it, it'll be all yours. No one else will have it." He knew he had me. His proud smirk said it all. I was a sucker for having things that others didn't.

I huffed, but leaned back into my previous position and waited for him to join me. Side by side, Teddy and I stared up at the sky. It opened up to us like a canvas as if I could pick up a paintbrush and draw my imagination across the empty blue space.

"I think the sun wants to be my friend." Whispering my deepest secret into the air, I wondered if the sun would hear me and change his mind. He seemed to be a selective bloke- very careful about the company he kept way up there in the sky. "He follows me, you see. And he's always watching. I know he misses me at night because every morning he's right outside my window… I thought maybe if I watched him back he'd know that I might like to be friends with him too."

Teddy was silent, and at first I thought he was stunned because all the evidence was falling into place and he could see what I saw, but the longer the silence stretched on I began to worry.

"It's not silly!" I defended viciously shooting up to glare at the boy with the pink hair. "You better not tell Victoire or the others! I didn't even want to tell you, and now he probably won't even want to be friends anymore."

I felt my resolve crumbling as the childishness of my theory crushed in upon me. I ruined it all. Teddy's disbelief made me see it, and I thought I'd hate him forever for taking the sun from me.

"I was just thinking," Teddy didn't even blink at my fit. He never even removed his examination from above us. "That if the sun would want to be friends with anybody it would be you."

I sighed in relief. I knew he was right, and with Teddy's blessing I forgot I ever doubted it. I thrust my palmed hands at him.

"Now it's your turn. What are you going to give me?"

Chuckling at my impatience, he rearranged himself to sit across from me with his legs sprawled comfortably. His eyes sparkled, and I waited with bated breath.

"What about your very own name?"

At once, I deflated. I'd given up my very best secret for nothing! Irritated, I gritted my teeth.

"I already have a name, Teddy. You're as dim as Hugo if you can't remember it… Lily Luna Potter."

"But don't you see? Those are all other people's names that they gave to you." He was smug as he explained. "It really doesn't belong to you at all."

"It does so!" I gasped out, but I had already begun to see that he was right and it horrified me. How had I never seen it before? I felt deep betrayal that quickly transformed into anger. What if I had never realized and I'd gone my whole life without a name of my own? How could Mum and Dad do this to me?

Enraged with Teddy for his own part in the fiasco, I lashed out swinging a tiny fist at him that he dodged.

"Calm down, you little monster. I told you I would give you one, didn't I?"

"How? Tell me right now!" My attitude changed instantly. Maybe my five year old life really wasn't over. If anyone could salvage it, Teddy could.

He took his time speaking, and I knew he was doing it just to defy me. "Well you see, I'm named after someone else too… Theodore."

"Theodore!?" As serious as this dilemma was I couldn't help the waterfall of giggles that overtook me as I clutched my stomach.

"Hush." He scolded, his eyes flashing with real emotion for the first time. "I was going to tell you how I was clever enough to get my own name, but maybe you don't deserve one…"

"Tell me, please!" I forced my lips to pout sweetly, and I widened my eyes innocently at him. What I really wanted to do was berate him for withholding the information, but I knew Teddy and that wasn't going to get me anywhere with him.

He wasn't afraid of me.

"I know you're faking that." He said, but he was smirking in amusement. "Teddy is short for Theodore so it's the same, but all my own at the same time."

"But you can't make Lily any shorter." I snapped. He'd promised me a name and I was going to hold him to it.

I doubt he'd even heard my comment. His face had taken on the thoughtful look it did when he was coming up with solutions or new rules that made our games better.

"I've got it." His smile broke through after the longest pause of my entire life. "If you take the first and last letter from both Lily and Luna- that's "L" from the beginning and "Y" from the end of _L_il_Y_, and then "L" from the beginning of your middle name and "A" from the end of _L_un_A_- you get _LYLA_… Perfect! See I told you I could give you your very own name."

"What?" My face wrinkled with confusion. Was that my only option? _LIE-lah_. "I don't even think that's a real name, Teddy!"

"Exactly!" His face was bright and just as radiant as my other friend, the sun. "That's what makes it you very own!"

The memory slipped away from me, and I woke up painfully aware of the lumpy hospital bed beneath me. Maybe if I kept my eyes shut I could fall back asleep, but an incessant pressure behind my ears deterred me.

"I wouldn't have minded, you know." It wasn't Ginny who spoke, and I clenched my eyelids tighter unwilling to face the reality of my obviously damaged mental state. I knew it was the auburn haired girl from before, the one with Harry's eyes. If I saw her again I didn't think I could pretend I hadn't. "I wasn't exactly using it, and I've been told Lily is a lovely name."

"You're not real." I told her, even though I'd opened my eyes and could see how perfectly real she looked. "Lily Evans is dead."

It would've been easier to convince myself if she didn't look so healthy. Voluminous hair, slender frame, pink cheeks- she didn't look a day older than me. Even if she had lived she would have been old by now.

"Actually, I died Lily Potter." She smiled and even with a mischievous twinkle she still looked sickeningly sweet.

"You're a ghost?" I gasped, pinching my leg over and over again hoping to wake up from the hallucination.

She shook her head, sitting at the bottom corner of the slim bed and made an indention where the mattress gave to her corporeal weight. Ghosts were wispy figures that could float through walls and glide through people. They had no real form in this world.

Still mesmerized by her display, I was caught off guard when she placed a willowy hand on top of mine. Her skin was warm and just as firm as mine.

"To you, I'm just as real as anyone else." Her sweet smile returned.

"Am I crazy? Is that what happened to me the past six months- I lost my mind?" I felt terrified at the possibility. My heart was beating violently, and I let it run wild. I'd rather die of a heart attack than be stuck in St. Mungos for the rest of my life.

"I'm here to help you." Lily told me, tucking her curly hair behind her ear. It was such a normal gesture that I was struck momentarily numb.

"From where- the afterlife, heaven, the great bloody beyond? And don't you think you're a little late to offer assistance? I could have really used you help six months ago when I was kidnapped!" I scoffed. Was it disrespectful to scoff at the dead? I decided I didn't care. If there was someone out there actually keeping count of wrongs then I was already doomed anyways.

"I wish I knew where I came from. I'm as clueless to life after death as you are right now." Her wistful response wasn't what I expected, but honesty read through her eyes so potently I could not doubt her. "I'm only permitted to remember what's important to helping you. I _do_ know that something happened- something changed- in you at some point over the last six months, and that's what allows me to come to you like this… I also know that I'd never be brought here unless it was of great importance."

"Why did you leave earlier when Harry and Ginny walked in?" Information clogged and eroded my mind jostling the sand about. I didn't know where to start or what to ask.

"Because if I had stayed then you would have tried to talk to me in front of them, and they would think your mind was damaged. You're the only one who can see me of course, and it would be rather counterproductive to have you locked up here forever for talking to dead people. We have things to do on the outside… Big things."

"But why? Shouldn't Dad be allowed to see you? He's your son after all."

For the first time, I saw fire in her eyes. Straightening to stand, she crossed her arms and frowned at me unhappily.

"I told you that something happened specifically _to you_ that lets me come _to you_ like this. No, I don't know what that is right now, so don't bother asking. I need you to trust that I'm doing everything in my power and available knowledge to help you."

I stared at her. What choice did I have at this point? I could trust her and hold onto the notion that maybe I really wasn't insane or I could tell the Healers that I was seeing my dead grandmother (who coincidentally looked like a seventeen year old girl). There was no choice. I would accept what she said for the time being, but be prepared to reevaluate the situation when the time came.

"There are people coming." Lily said suddenly looking towards the door even though I couldn't hear anything that would alert me of visitors. "You can't talk to me while they're here. Do you understand? They won't be able to see me."

Frazzled, I looked back and forth between the door and Lily several times before coming to a split second decision.

"Just go. My brain is all fuzzy right now, and I can barely tell what's real and what's not. I might accidentally say something."

"There are still things you need to know-." She shook her head frantically.

I could hear them coming now. It sounded like a stampede was about to burst through my door.

"Just go!" I whispered adamantly as the door opened.

And then she vanished right in front of my eyes as my ears sizzled. The blunt visual of actually seeing her exit left my mind shuddering with disbelief, but I didn't have time to process it as the Potter and Weasley clans came barreling in.

Well Harry and Ginny entered alone, but I caught a glimpse of the circus that waited through the little curtain as it ruffled in the breeze as the door closed behind them.

They both looked loads better and ten years younger without the dark circles under their eyes or same dodgy clothes. A good night's sleep and a shower had made a world of a difference for them.

Worriedly, I lifted a hand to pat my own face, thinking that I could probably use a shower myself. The motion disturbed something hard and thick caked to my face. It started at my chin and covered the space all the way up to my right eye.

"Careful." Ginny tried to take my hand away from my face. "The Healers were very specific about not disturbing your injuries."

"Injuries?" My heart fluttered painfully.

There was no tenderness in my cheek. If I was injured I would be able to feel it, right? It was just numb. The only real pain came from the random throbs in my wrists. I tried to assess my entire body. I was achy and sore, but not worse than after a vigorous workout. Ignoring Ginny's warning I used my hands to trace the rest of my face, down my throat, and then back to my hair.

"Oh, no." Panic seized me, and with shaking fingers I searched for the hair that I'd grown out since I was thirteen. "A mirror… I need a mirror!"

I should have quit seeing the pity on their faces, but I couldn't stop and I yelled at them to help me again. The only mirror was in the attached lavatory though. I tried to go by myself, but my legs were useless and the world spun.

"Can't you see I can't walk?!"

Reluctantly Ginny took me by the arm and offered the support I needed to make it there. Bracing myself on the sink, I looked up terrified into the face of the girl I no longer knew.

I cried out, repelled by my own reflection.

The summer before Albus started Hogwarts, I had developed a fascination with my cousin Victoire. She was older and knew all the best ways to capture a boy's attention. She had the loveliest clothes and the best accessories too.

I'd made Tabatha take me to visit Shell Cottage everyday for an entire week. I'd sit on Victoire's lavender bedspread and watch her at her vanity as she ran careful stroke after stroke through her silver hair. My eyes had not shine with admiration or awe, but instead with the passionate curiosity that struck me often throughout childhood.

"Everyone says you're beautiful." I told her one day after she'd finished her routine, and had turned to begin the daunting task of choosing an outfit for the afternoon.

Her light giggles rang out like Christmas bells filling up the room. She turned away from the full length mirror that she'd just been inspecting, and stared at me with glowing affection.

"The only people who care about being beautiful are the ones who are not."

I'd grown bored with Victoire by the end of the week, but her words struck me hard now like a slap in the face.

I had been beautiful- the most beautiful girl of my year. Everyone said so. It hadn't mattered to me in the least. Why should I worry about beauty when I possessed it so flawlessly? I'd earned it the same way I'd earned my last name- simply by being born.

The girl that stared back at me was not beautiful.

I couldn't breathe. "Take it off!"

"The Healers said-."

"I don't care!" I pulled at the white plaster that covered part of my face. "I have to see. Please, Mum, just take it off for a minute."

She nodded giving into my plea and helping me carefully remove the mask like object from my cheek.

It felt like we were pulling the skin directly off my face, setting a torch to the nerves, but I made her keep going. I realized the only thing that had prevented me from the pain had been whatever potion was swabbed on the inside of the mask. I felt the pain now though, clenching my teeth to keep from crying out.

It was so potent I felt lightheaded.

"If you follow the Healers' directions and with some other magical assistant, they're hopeful eventually it won't be so noticeable." I heard Ginny's words in the back of my mind, but my focus remained on the mirror.

I'd always prided myself on my complexion. It wasn't a normal redheaded skin tone. It was smooth and prone to tanning. I wasn't the blushing type, but if I had been I was positive my lovely skin would keep the secret for me.

Now it was white, nearly translucent, and so pale I was envious of Nearly Headless Nick.

Three vulgar wounds, gaping and oozing, ran up from my chin under the distinct line of my high cheekbone. They were thick, deep, and smudged with black where they did not burn crimson.

I couldn't breathe. "Tell me."

Ginny just stared at me.

"Tell me about all of it. Not just what I can see, but what has already been healed or numbed so much I can't even feel it."

As her face went green with nausea, at least I could say that I looked better than her for a second.

"Other than the cuts on your face, there was a half healed lacerations on your abdomen."

I wanted to look for myself, but I couldn't take my eyes off the face in the mirror. "Why did they heal the cut on my stomach and leave the one of my face?"

"From what the Healers could tell the injury to your abdomen would have been life threatening, while the other is superficial. Whoever healed your stomach either wasn't skilled in healing magic or very careless because there's a scar as well." Ginny continued. Her jaw was clenched with disgust, but she pushed forward with her words. "You had four broken ribs that were healed by the first responding Aurors in the forest. Your wrists were shackled together with what appeared to be cursed manacles. They had to break your hands to get them off, but they were healed immediately after. It appeared you'd been restrained in them for awhile due to the extensive nerve damaged in your wrists. The Healers did what they could, but they don't know how much permanent harm has been done."

I remembered the blood and gore that had oozed from underneath the shackles as I ran. I was thankful for the bandages now. I had no desire to see them again.

"There was some internal bleeding." Ginny choked as her throat filled with emotion, but she swallowed it back for both of our sakes. "There was also some water in your lungs."

"Water?" I had been soaked. I remembered now.

"Yes, the Aurors searched the area for a water source, but they couldn't find anything that would be large enough to submerge your entire body in."

"Tell me the rest." I demanded.

Her face was red and a splotchy rash spread down her neck before exploding across her chest. "Why, Lyla? It'll only cause you pain."

"Tell me!" Gasp after gasp I reached for oxygen even as stars sparkled at the corners of my eyes. I had to get through this. "Just do it."

"You were naked, but they couldn't determine whether a sexual assault had taken place. Your feet had been shredded. They were so raw that it took twice as much potion to regrow any skin than even a severe burn victim. There were countless superficial scratches, burns, and bruises. You were also suffering from a severe concussion. The Healers discovered a broken bone in your leg that had never been treated, but had healed wrong. It had to be re-broken so they could fix it."

"That's it?" It was a fight to get my voice out through the sharp intakes that punished my lungs.

"You were malnourished. The Healers said you wouldn't have made it another week."

I stared at my gaunt face. I'd always been thin, but this was disgusting. The skin was pulled tight, making my eyes protrude and look too wide. The bones of my shoulders looked like hidden knives beneath the gown.

The more air I tried to force into my lungs, the more I craved.

My hair that had once shone in crimson curtains down my back was gone. Where my skin had lightened, my hair had done the opposite until it was almost as black as Dad's. The only red tone came from where the light reflected off it. It was a horrifying contrast to my skin.

"Did you do this?" Despite my gasping breaths I tried to speak, holding up a limp strand that only hung to my shoulder.

"It was like that when we found you." There was apology in her eyes. "It looks like it was sawed off."

Sawed off? Why would someone do that? Why would someone do any of it? I was far from perfect, but did I deserve this? Did anyone deserve this?

My deformed reflection was the last thing I saw before promptly passing out.

**0000000**

**Author's Note:** I've outlined this story to the very end- just as long and complicated as Love and Other Tragedies. There will be similarities; both focus on strong female leads, deal with the complicated issues of love, and revolve around a mystery. However Memoirs of a Bad Girl is lighter and more humorous, and while this chapter was solely in first person from Lyla's perspective (and she will continue to be the main narrator), we will get the chance to look through a few other characters' eyes.

That being said if you enjoy the story and want to see me continue to post please speak up. I probably won't bother keeping up with it if there isn't an interest for the story.

The EPILOGUE for "Love and Other Tragedies" will be posted before the next chapter of "Memoirs" goes up.


	2. Chapter 2

**Memoirs of a Bad Girl**

Author's Note: So yeah I know this wasn't supposed to come until after the epilogue of Love and Other Tragedies, but that's really fighting me so I figured might as well go ahead a post chapter two of MBG considering the great response I got for the last chapter.

Thank you for your reviews!

**Chapter Two**

**The Great Progression of Mental Healers**

The visitation with my family was postponed after my breakdown…indefinitely. I didn't want anyone seeing me, and my parents relented temporarily. I think they would have done anything to make me feel better. I couldn't blame them.

They'd never seen me like that. Frankly, I'd never been like that…Ever.

I wasn't prone to sadness. From the day I was born I'd been a force of nature- independent and self assured.

I didn't know how to be her anymore though. And Harry and Ginny were even more lost than I was as to how to handle the situation.

They agreed that I didn't have to see the entire family at first, but that once the wounds on my face had closed enough to go without plaster/potion constantly I would have to see my siblings and Tabatha.

I wondered what the house was like without me. After the second adoption (the third adopted child) I'd started calling it The Orphanage. It was fitting, especially after they'd taken in all four adopted children. Thankfully, we had enough room. Otherwise I really would have killed them.

Before it was The Orphanage, it had been the Potter Estate- a country manor in the sprawling English countryside that was renovated with magic and altered to perfectly fit the Potter's family of six (it was right after I'd been born and we'd gotten Tabatha). Around a dozen bedrooms were plenty to accommodate the extended Weasley family and friends. There was a three bedroom guesthouse for Tabatha, and a wooded area for the best games of hide and seek. When James had been old enough, Harry had splurged on a custom built Quidditch pitch that was only a short walk from the main house.

There was a pond behind the guesthouse on the west lawn where Ginny had taught us how to swim, and an old stable that I'd talked them into getting horses to fill.

After four years of lessons I'd told them they could sale the stinky creatures for all I cared because I was done, but Albus had taken a liking to them by that point, and Molly and Rose had started lessons so the horses got to stay. James hated the horses even more than I did. He would say 'Why would you want to ride a horse when you could ride a broom?'

I had been sure that Lily would return, but as the week passed I was so bombarded with Healers of all sorts that I doubted she could have squeezed in a visit before the next person was ushered in.

Harry and Ginny had even tried to make me talk with one of the Mental Healers, but I'd put my foot down on that one.

Given the state of my facial injury I thought I'd have a month before I'd have to face anyone. Apparently being Harry Potter's daughter meant that all the best resources and magical means were put to use on my account though, and the skin on my face was sealed. It was fragile, and much to my dismay, the easiest part of the healing process.

The Healers said that actually getting the wounds closed wasn't the problem. It would be erasing the seriously damaged scar tissue. 'That-.' They said with the most infuriatingly perky little smiles, '-would be when the real challenged began.'

One week after their last attempted visit, one of the nurses stuck her head in with a big smile on her face.

"Your brothers and sisters are here to see you!" She informed with one of those ecstatic smiles that made me want to slap her.

Harry and Ginny hadn't even warned me…cowards. They knew that I would come up with a million excuses to avoid this.

Predictably it was James who pushed past the nurse first, his tall frame bounding at me with open arms, blocking my view of the other Potters' entrance.

"Move your bum, James Potter." Tabatha commanded, using one bump of her healthy hips to maneuver past my oldest brother. She dumped Mia onto the hospital bed before suffocating me against her giant chest. She hugged me so tightly my ears buzzed from the pressure. "You scared me to death, Lyla Potter. Don't you do that again. I'll kill you m'self if you do- take you to a volcano and dump you in."

I rolled my eyes at her weird island sayings, but let her hug me again anyways. As usual Tabatha's hair was wrapped in a scarf and I breathed her in, relaxing at the distinct scent of home that clung to her soft dress.

Mia tugged at my hand and I turned to the toddler as she scuttled into my lap. Out of all my adopted siblings she annoyed me the least. Probably because she didn't talk…ever. The hands she used to grab my face with weren't sticky so I allowed the intimacy and didn't shoo her away when she laid a butterfly kiss on my lips.

I frowned at Mia's tangled brown hair.

The child hadn't looked polished a day since she'd been left on The Orphanage's doorstep nearly three years ago. No matter how expensive the clothes were that draped her tiny little frame or how many detangling charms they placed on her hair, Mia always ended up looking like a lost little gypsy child.

"Move over, Tabby. I want to see her." Rumer squeezed between Tabatha and my bed.

"Don't call her that." I snapped at the nine year old. "Are you too dim to remember three syllables; Ta-BA-tha?"

I thought Harry and Ginny were nutters after the first adoption.

The chubby balding man we knew as Uncle Dudley (though I seriously questioned any blood relation to the man) had made an unexpected appearance on our door step in the middle of March. It was the year before I started Hogwarts, and my peak of boredom without my brothers.

I was shocked to see Uncle Dudley, and even more alarmed by the plaid shorts he wore. His knees looked like squashed cupcakes.

The only times I'd ever encountered him before had been in the strange unmoving cards he sent us every Christmas, and rare visits around the same time of year. I'd thought he looked bad enough in a jumper (like a sausage wrapped in yarn), so my horror was understandable to be presented with the visual of him with actual skin showing.

For the sake of my eyesight, I decided I had better uses for my time. Like going to spy on Tabatha's niece who was my age and had just moved into the guest house with her aunt.

An hour later and armed with the knowledge that our new house guest was the most boring ten year old alive, I rejoined Mum in the kitchen. She took no notice of me with her brows furrowed as she kneaded at a fistful of dough on the counter.

Tense lines showed the old muscles in her arms and just how much frustration she was taking out on the innocent meal.

"Where'd Harry go?" I asked, noting the silence. "Uncle Dudley get hungry and eat him?"

Ginny looked up at me startled. She really hadn't noticed me at all!

"You father went to meet some of Uncle Dudley's friends."

"Muggles?!" I asked surprised. The few times we'd been to see Uncle Dudley and his pear shaped wife, James, Albus, and I had endured long winded speeches about not exposing our magic- accidental or otherwise.

"Lyla." Mum snapped. "Why don't you go see if Bonnie wants to play?"

Bonnie being Tabatha's niece and Ginny's suggestion being highly unlikely. I'd already learned everything I needed to know about that little swot Bonnie Morgan. But Mum never called me Lyla so I knew something wasn't right. She didn't even look pleased that I'd left the room as she asked without any cheek (a rarity).

Something was very very wrong.

I was right (I almost always was). Late that night when Dad came home, he wasn't alone.

"Look, let's not make any rash decisions." I appealed to their logical sides the next day when they sat me down for a 'talk.' "You're just about to finally get me out of the house and you want to do THIS?"

Mum and Dad stared at me blankly, accustomed to my outburst. I cringed at the sounds emitting from where the twin two year olds played in the old play pin that Tabatha had pulled out of the attic.

How could they even be considering doing this to me? Weren't they the ones always telling me what a 'handful' I was? What did they think two new babies were going to be like- a ride on a kiddie broom?

It was time to call in reinforcements.

I turned to Tabatha, who had remained uncharacteristically silent thus far in the family dispute. My eyes pleaded for help, but she stayed focused on her lap. I knew she could feel my gaze though as I watched her shift uncomfortably.

For a split second her gaze slid microscopically to her left where Bonnie sat just as silently as her aunt. I seethed with rage, betrayed by my most trusted confidante.

_E tu, Tabatha? E tu? _

I knew she saw this plan as the madness it was, but she wouldn't say anything. She wouldn't dare speak out against the people who had just allowed her family member to come live with us permanently.

My glare turned on the girl who had just ruined my life.

She shivered under the hefty weight of my fierce gaze. Yes, I would hate Bonnie Morgan forever. She'd gotten me saddled with more siblings.

"You are all completely barking mad!" I declared dramatically before stomping out of the high ceilinged living room.

Alone in my bedroom I decided that when they all came begging for my forgiveness that I'd at least consider hearing them out. I'd even help them pack those little imposter siblings' things to ship them back to their muggle parents.

I just couldn't comprehend why I was being punished because some horrid muggles didn't want anything to do with magic, even if it meant giving up their own children.

I mean, obviously, they hadn't ever been overly fond of them. Otherwise they wouldn't have named them Rumer and Rowan, but that wasn't my problem.

Neither Harry nor Ginny ever did show up at my door ready to evict their adopted children, but I did eventually get used to my new brother and sister. They were nine years old now, and six years after that day when Harry and Ginny adopted Mia, Rumer had pitched an even bigger fit than I had.

We'll call it karma.

Rumer took no notice of the insult I just thrown at her. She never did. Instead her face had frozen with sudden distracted terror. "What happened to your hair?"

"You be quiet, Rumer Hinton." Tabatha had her by the hand yanking her away, scooping Mia off the bed as she went.

"Hinton-Potter." Rumer grumbled obliviously.

Her twin hid behind Albus' legs. Rowan had always been terrified of me. At least one of them was smart enough to understand the way things worked around here.

Trey stood beside Al. He was fifteen now and despite looking the most like a Potter naturally, I was pretty sure he'd never capture James or Al's height.

There was a eighth child in the room, and for a horrified second I thought that my ridiculous parents had managed to acquire _another _child, but then his Weasley red hair caught my eye.

I sighed in relief. No doubt about it, the bloke who looked around my age was a Weasley, a very familiar looking one at that.

It wouldn't be the first time I'd forgotten one of my cousins' names. I mean, for Merlin's sake there were enough of them, but it was strange that he was here. This was supposed to be Potters (even the imposter ones) only.

I stared at him obnoxiously, waiting for someone to explain his presence.

"Don't get fussed up over your hair, Lyles." Albus grinned, perfectly happy to let Rowan cling to him like a fungus. "Knowing you, it'll be all the rage when Hogwarts starts back. You'll start a new trend."

I ignored him and continued my pointed gaze right at the ginger haired boy standing with my brothers. If he hadn't winked at me I would have let it go, but now it was a battle of wills.

"Er…Lyles, everything okay?" Albus' smile struggled to hold even in the awkward silence I'd sentenced the room to.

The ginger's grin grew which only incensed me further. Who did he think he was? I narrowed me eyes.

"What you glaring at, Lyla Potter?" Tabatha demanded glancing between me and the boy. "Your brothers been worried about you and now you just gonna ignore them? I didn't raise you like that, Lyla Potter. No, I didn't."

I huffed in exasperation and raised a condemning finger to point at the boy. "Why the bloody hell is he here?"

"Now, you've done it." The boy said throwing his head back to laugh.

"Who, dear?" Ginny asked from the doorway as she and Harry came further into the room. I hadn't even noticed them enter after the others.

"Don't you remember Trey?" Harry walked to stand beside my bed, staring at me with caution. He'd been doing that ever since I woke up. Every time I did or said anything he didn't instantly understand, he went into Auror mode like I was a big clue to unraveling some mystery. "He came to live us after your second year. He was an orphan just like me and he'd never heard of wizards or witches until he got his Hogwarts letter. He's your brother too, just like James, and Albus, and Rowan."

Did he think I was daft? Of course, I knew my own ruddy brother.

Trey was only a year younger than me, and excellent at keeping a few of my secrets that he'd stumbled upon, like when I'd been sneaking out and got hung up on his window (lucky bastard had a room on the first floor of The Orphanage) or the Firewhiskey that I'd hidden in his room when Molly had tattled on me.

"Not Trey!" I exclaimed irritated. "The Weasley standing right beside him. You promised this would only be immediate family!"

The Weasley in question was practically cackling with mischievous glee. "Oh, little Lily Potter, do you know how long it's been since I've gotten to play a decent prank on someone? You might be my favorite niece by default from this point further."

"Oh!" I glared at him, and then threw my hands up at all of them, ignoring the pain it cause in my wrists. "A prank is it? I bet you all think you're quite clever for taking the mickey from a girl with amnesia! And my name is Lyla. I'd like to know who you are so I can correctly distribute my retribution."

"Lyla, no one is playing a prank on you." Harry said very slow and calmly.

No one was looking at the boy. They were all looking at me, their expressions filling rapidly with alarm. Tabatha was easing towards the door with Mia, Rumer, and Rowan in tow. James, Albus, and Trey were casting wild looks around the room.

The Weasley continued to smile charmingly, striking me again with a sense of undeniable familiarity. "The name is Fred and I guess you don't need my surname. It's the damndest thing- most people just instantly know."

"Fred Weasley?" I chortled at him. "You don't look a thing like him!"

"Boys, take Tabatha and the children to the Burrow." Ginny had gripped a stunned James and Trey by the arms as she forced them towards the door. "Now!"

"I'm highly offended." The imposter Fred dramatically placed a hand over his heart. "By right of birth order I'm quite sure the phrase you were looking for is that- Fred Weasley the Second doesn't look a thing like _me'._"

"Wha-." I stopped immediately with a squeak, covering my mouth with both hands.

"Who are you talking to dear?" Ginny's asked like she was talking to Mia instead of a perfectly intelligent seventeen year old. Fear loomed behind the brave front her eyes presented, but I could see the horror beneath. "It's okay, sweetheart. Is there someone else here with us right now?"

_Yes. _I didn't say. I had to fight very hard to look everywhere but at my dead relative who was standing close enough to my mother to touch. _Your dead brother is haunting me_.

"I…er- I was just a bit confused." I stumbled through my words. "It's just us- you, me, and dad…. Has been the whole time- I mean- just us and the others- not anyone else."

Harry looked doubtful, but gave me a brave face anyways. "Maybe it was just too soon. You've been through a terrible ordeal. We'll take things slower from now on."

I nodded and looked down, hoping beyond hope that was the end of it.

"And I think it's best for everyone that you finally talk to someone." Ginny crushed my hopes. I knew exactly what she meant when she said 'talk to someone.'

I would be talking to the Mental Healers whether I wanted to or not.

I nodded again, but with every intention of finding a way out of it. "I'm exhausted. It's been a busy morning."

They looked just as happy to be dismissed as I was to be alone. I couldn't even begin to imagine the kinds of theories they were producing and dying to share with one another. As soon as the door clicked shut behind them, I turned furiously towards Fred Weasley.

"Bloody fantastic!"

But he was gone in the same instant leaving nothing but a chuckle to float through the air and a buzz in my ears.

0000000

And so began the 'Great Progression of Mental Healers' as it shall be known from this point forth.

I flat out refused to see the first three, but then Harry had forced the fourth into the room and sealed the door behind him.

I decided to simply ignore the Healer's presence. Remaining completely stoic turned out to be just as boring for him as it had been for me, and the bald man had been snoring within half an hour.

I'd joined him, and for a little while I'd considered that this arrangement might actually work.

I decided to tell Harry that this was in fact the man who could help me, but dear old Da had checked on us early. Needlessly to say, the man didn't get any gold for his trouble.

The fifth was a woman with fake red hair who I thrilled with tales of my fantastic life until she'd realized I was just repeating the plot of a popular romance novel. She never showed up for our next session, which was really too bad because I'd been preparing with a new book I'd nicked from one of the nurses.

I'd thought the sixth had real potential.

He was young (couldn't have been older than Teddy), and cute in a baby face sort of way (I'll cut myself some slack considering for all I knew it had been over six months since I'd interacted with a bloke). I'd regaled to him (in graphic detail) how I'd lost my virginity to a foreign prince last summer (an absolutely true story).

He'd left blushing so badly I'd bet I could've warmed my hands on them in the middle of December. Harry had come in later confused with the sad news my favorite Healer would not be returning.

"You really are a character all on your own." Lily said appearing with a tingle behind my ears. "You're feisty like your mum and with the dry humor of your dad, but that unabashed cheek is a riot."

"Oh good, you're here. I've been wanting a word with you." I said carelessly, casting aside the _Witch Weekly_ I'd been flipping through. "A little heads up on the fact that you WEREN'T ALONE would have been nice! It might have kept me from having a row with my dead uncle in front of my entire bleeding family!"

She stared at me innocently from her seat at the end of my bed. The sun cast in through window over her as if she really were an angel. "Fred Weasley came to see you?"

"Yes, and he's gotten me saddled with a parade of shrinks. I thought the plan was to get me out of here? Any more of you lot show up and I'll end up in a padded room for life!"

"I already told you that I only know what is important at the time to help you. I didn't know about Fred, but I _was _trying to tell you that I wasn't the only visitor you'd be having when you so rudely dismissed me." Lily's lips soured. She even looked pretty when she did that. "And the Healers are the reason I'm here… You're seeing a new one today."

I cursed.

"Your foul mouth- now that I wholeheartedly believe you got from me." She smirked proudly. "…When the Healer comes today let her help you."

"You lot really need to get your wires straight. That's a bit of a mixed signal after our last conversation." Angrily, I resituated in the lumpy bed. I was so sick of the hospital, and this horrible bed, and especially this sack of a gown.

"I don't mean tell her about seeing dead people." Lily explained sensibly. "I would advise you avoiding that at all cost unless you want them to think you've gone completely round the bend… I meant really let her help you with the other stuff."

"What else would there to be to talk about?" I hardly thought my dilemma of choosing blue or black as my best color qualified needing assistance from a Healer. "The fact that I've been having discussions with dead relatives seems to be my one glaring mental instability."

Lily's brows drew together in confusion. It was funny that she actually looked like my mum when she did that.

"Lyla, you lost six months of your life. You were abused and injured to the point of death. Something horrific and life changing happened to you. Fred, the others, and I aren't the problem. We're here to help you. It's a gift…not a curse."

"So I'm just supposed to open up to this woman because you say so?" Their presence hadn't felt like a gift. So far all it had gotten me was trouble.

She reached out and took my hand. She felt so real. How could I doubt that? I could question what I could see, but to feel it? How could I discount that?

"If we're going to do our job the most important thing you have to do is listen to us. It might not make sense at the time and it might be the very last thing in the world you want to do, but our only job is to help you. You've got to trust that…

"This Healer can help you too… And if you give her a chance I bet you'll even like her."

"You say that like you know her." I grumbled. She was right. Opening up to this random woman was the last thing in the world I wanted to do.

Lily's emerald eyes sparked with mischievousness I was still getting used to. "She's coming. I'd better go- wouldn't want to disobey your orders about not being here while others are present."

I closed my eyes to avoid the stunning display of her other-worldly-ness, but the familiar tingle still encompassed my ears.

"Ms. Potter, are you awake?"

I considered faking sleep. I really did, but the "Great Progression of Mental Healers" would not end with this lady.

Harry and Ginny would have another one here by tomorrow, maybe sooner. My parents had a lot of faults, but they'd never quit trying to help me. Would it really be so horrible to let them think they'd done their job? Lily seemed to think it was important to talk to this woman. What could one honest conversation hurt?

"Just resting my eyes." I told her and took a moment to study the woman who had gotten a dead girl's stamp of approval.

She was of medium height, slim, and older than Harry or Ginny, but not as old as Grandmum. Her golden her hair was intricately streaked with silver, and she had smooth skin that was surprisingly sparse of wrinkles or blemishes. She walked with purpose on dainty heels with her back straight, and she didn't sit when she arrived at the chair beside my bed. It was like she floated into the seat. I'd never seen anything so graceful.

"Do you know why I am here?" She asked, her blue eyes gazing at me unflinchingly.

"I lost six months of my life. I was abused and injured. Something horrible and life changing happened to me." I parroted Lily's words with all the enthusiasm of a puppet.

The Healer's face remained oddly composed. I couldn't tell if she'd bought my statement or not. "How does that make you feel?"

_How does that make me feel? _

What a ridiculous question! This was the one that was supposed to help me? I felt outraged. "How do you think it makes me feel?!"

"I do not know." She acted like I hadn't just shot something sarcastic back at her. "I'd like you to tell me in your own words how it makes you feel."

"Are you nutters, lady? I was kidnapped, abused, and found running naked through a forest!"

"And?" She inquired as calm as ever.

"And…and- and-."

What did I feel? Six months of my life gone- pssh- disappeared in the blink of an eye. I was left with injuries that never happened to me, and scarred with proof of things that were covered with sandbanks in my mind. So how did I feel?

"I don't feel anything… I feel… numb."

She nodded, accepting the honesty that had just exploded out of me without judgment. "I want to be upfront with you, Ms. Potter."

I nodded unsure of why we'd jumped subjects so suddenly.

"This is not a case I would normally take on. I am the foremost expert in the field of mental healing. My expertise is sought out all over the world." The Healer said without a smidge of shame at her perceived arrogance. "I am a certified Healer in the Wizarding World, but I have studied muggle medicine. I spent years in the muggle world learning the type of science they know as Psychology.

"My return to the Wizarding World almost seven years ago was with the single goal of revolutionizing the way wizards handle mental healing. My lab is set up in Greece right now, and I am on the verge of a major breakthrough."

I stared at her blankly. "How lucky I must be to have the name Potter."

"Your family is very influential, perhaps more powerful in the Wizarding World than the Minister herself." She seemed nonplussed by my snide remark. "It is not your surname that has earned you the right to my services though. Your parents named you after one of the only real friends I ever had. Lily Evans was a truly extraordinary witch. If she were alive she would ask me to help you and, for her, I would."

Lily hadn't asked her though. She'd asked me.

"Can you help someone who doesn't even know what's wrong with them?"

"I can try." There was nothing but honesty in her words. "I would like to speak with your parents as well if you don't mind. There are things we need to discuss together."

Harry and Ginny would just love that. They were all about sitting us down for 'talks'.

I shrugged, but remembered something as she reached the door. "I never got your name."

She smiled displaying two rows of perfectly straight and shiny teeth before opening the door and motioning for the people standing in the hallway to enter.

"It's an honor to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Potter." The Healer closed the door behind them. It was like in the few minutes she'd been there it had become her space- her office, her turf. She shook their hands staring them directly in the eye. "My name is Piper Prescott. I usually go by Dr. or Healer, but under the circumstances I think it's safe to say we're all going to be getting to know each beyond titles."

Harry looked back and forth between the older witch and me surprised and maybe a bit hesitant. "You've agreed to take Lyla on as your patient?"

"Certain arrangements will have to be made, but I think Lyla and I have decided that I am in a position to offer assistance in her recovery." Healer Prescott had slid elegantly back into her chair and summoned two more for my parents in the blink of an eye.

"Is that true?" Ginny peered at me hopefully through big brown doe eyes.

I stared at her blankly.

"I have something for you." Healer Prescott spoke digging through the tiny clutch that hung from her shoulder.

I'd have to get used to her abrupt speech patterns. I'd barely settled into one wave length when she was onto the next. The small leather bound book she produced was bigger than could naturally fit into the petite bag, and I knew she'd charmed it. What else did she have in there?

"It's a diary."

"A diary?" Ginny asked sharply, like the Healer had just suggested giving a functioning wand to a magically inclined infant.

Healer Prescott was unperturbed. Did anything rattle this woman? "Yes, it is the best way for Lyla to express her feelings in an environment where she is free from judgment."

Harry had placed a calming hand on Ginny's arm. Good, somebody needed to keep her under the control. Maybe, I wasn't the only one who was losing it. Harry held out a hand to Prescott and her diary. "Do you mind?"

She handed it to him without question, and he began to riffle through it purposefully allowing Mum to see his every move.

Healer Prescott paid them no heed, turning back to me. "We will meet three times a week at my laboratory in Greece. You will be honest, open-minded, and flexible to the methods of treatment I prescribe."

If my ears hadn't started buzzing the instant before she appeared, I would have screamed out loud and surely caused a scene.

Lily was standing by the window (it seemed to be her favorite place), and she placed a finger to her lips as if to tell me to be quiet.

_Yes_, thanks so much for the advice.

I wouldn't have had to worry if she wasn't there like I'd asked her. I couldn't glare at her though. Clueing the world renowned Healer Prescott into just how loony I was probably wasn't going to get me out of a hospital anytime soon.

"A diary seems like a good idea." Harry was now holding the book out to me. Apparently, they'd decided I was mature enough to handle a bunch of bound parchment.

"The Healers say that she'll be ready to released by the end of the week." Ginny said as I reached out for the book. That was news to me. Everyone spent so much time worrying over me that they often forgot to keep me informed about my own well-being. "We can figure out a method of transportation to get her to Greece from our home. The familiar environment will be good for her."

It really was just a huge coincidence. That's the only way the next series of events could have played out with perfect synchronization.

Just as Ginny told Healer Prescott that I could go home, I happened to open my new diary and fan through the blank pages absently.

By the beginning of her second sentence about the environment being good for me, the smell of the parchment had wafted to my nose, and just as she finished with a pleased smile, I leaned over and wretched all over six very expensive looking shoes

The room came alive with sudden activity as nurses were called and puke was vanished. In all of the commotion, Lily Evans skidded to my side and spoke in a clear voice that only I could here. "Say everything I tell you to."

I wanted to shoot her an annoyed glance, but just as soon as it had happened the room was clear again except for the other three living inhabitants.

"Are you alright?" Harry asked caressing my forehead like he'd done when I'd been feverish as a child.

"It was the sme-." I started only to have Lily grip my other hand.

Now Harry had my right hand and Lily the left. It would have been really sweet family moment in any other situation.

"Tell them that every time you think of being with your family again that you suddenly feel overwhelmed and sick."

I paused. It wasn't really true at all.

I'd gotten sick because the parchment smelled wrong or something. I hadn't wanted anyone to see me at first because I looked so gross, and then I hadn't minded seeing my siblings so much but stupid Fred Weasley had to show up and make everyone think I was bonkers.

Lily squeezed my hand painfully, urging me to do her bidding.

I repeated what she said like a good little puppet.

"I understand you have a rather large family, Mr. and Mrs. Potter." I focused on the Healer. She was the only one not looking at me with sympathy. "And you mentioned that all her outbursts have been when Lyla was confronted with her family."

They nodded, and I imagined them replaying the unconnected events in their heads again like it all made sense.

"Is there someone you trust that lives near Greece? Someone that could take Lyla in during our treatments? I think the pressure of home might be too much for her right now. Getting away to a fresh setting might be best."

I began to dispute this. I didn't want to go anywhere! I wanted to go to my nice bed at The Orphanage and roll around in all my expensive clothes. The long days that waited for me sunbathing by the pond were the only thing that had gotten me through this never ending nightmare of a hospital.

Lily pinched me so hard I had to bite my lip to keep from crying out, reminding me that I was only suppose to be saying what she told me to.

Ginny's eyes were frazzled, and she clenched her hands together with distraught fervor. "We couldn't send her to live with just anyone. I don't trust anyone besides family right now. Hogwarts is supposed to be the safest place in the world and they managed to steal her from right under our noses… And I couldn't leave the little ones."

"Remind them of your Uncle Charlie." Lily whispered urgently in my ear.

"Uncle Charlie!?" I accidentally exclaimed out loud while brushing her away from my ear, hoping it looked like I was dismissing an errant fly… But come on? He was a bloody Dragonologist who lived on some shotty little dragon sanctuary in the middle of nowhere. It was far from my ideal summer location. Besides, it'd been ages since I'd seen that particular uncle.

He'd had a falling out with Grandmum about seven years ago when he'd gotten a girl pregnant and hadn't bothered to marry her. Not that I ever got the full story, I'd been ten when the scandal had broken, after all. Uncle Charlie started coming round to Christmas again about five years ago, but that was the most I saw of him.

"Charlie?" Ginny said surprised, obviously not having considered him herself.

Harry's face had gone still and his eyes focused in the way it did when he was trying to think on something very hard. "Romania is a sight quicker trip to Greece than London, and we could trust Charlie to look after her."

What? Pardon me? They weren't really considering this were they? Hello, there were dragons there! This couldn't possibly actually happen, right?

No bloody way was I moving to some squatty little village where they probably didn't even have indoor plumbing.

No fucking way

0000000

_Dear Diary_

No, that was lame. Scratch that.

_Dear__…_

I can't believe I'm even giving this stupid diary a chance. Okay, whatever. Here goes.

_June 21__st___

_I leave for Romania in approximately twenty-four hours. _

_Bullocks,_

_Lyla Potter _

**0000000**

Author's Note: I know there are _certain _characters that you are more looking forward to getting a visit from, and I can promise you they are showing up very soon (as in the next chapter). Hope to hear from you by way of review.


	3. Chapter 3

**Memoirs of a Bad Girl **

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything. All credit lies elsewhere.

**Chapter Three**

**Proud Flesh**

_June 22__nd___

_I had absolutely no intention of ever using this journal (I refuse to be the kind of girl that adheres to a 'diary'), but seeing as I've been stripped of my wand and confined in Charlie's (__hut,__shack__) charming abode, it was either rant my frustration in word form or destroy dear Uncle Charlie's valuables- and seeing how this is now my new residence I did the self preserving thing and picked up a quill. I had to ask Harry to charm the smell off the dodgy little book before I could use it though. The smell of the parchment still made me gag. _

_I've been in Romania for less than two hours. I was Portkeyed (or should I say smuggled?) directly into the (__hut,__shack__) charming abode like a criminal or refugee._

_Harry and Ginny had been very accommodating and sweet in the five days leading up to my release. They'd sworn to me that no matter how my treatment went that if it was medically safe for me to return (with the small stipulation of Healer Prescott's blessing), that I would be on my way back to Hogwarts September first for my seventh year._

_They insisted that I not reveal my return or current location to anyone, which suited me just fine. I had no desire to let anyone see me the way I currently looked. _

_And then they agreed to let me spend Christmas hols with the triplets... _

_I should've known something was terribly _terribly_ wrong right then and there. Harry despised my royal friends. Ginny said they were bad influences. Funny, sometimes I couldn't tell who was influencing who. After all it had been Gabriel's idea to play strip Quidditch and Labelle's to invite that photographer bloke she fancied, but I'd granted him permission to take pictures of the festivities. I wasn't one to point fingers. What was the point? I'd become the "bum that sold a million copies." _

_Harry and Ginny had been sneaky about their plan. It was on a Tabatha-level of cunning, and I felt it was probably more of Mum's doing than Da's, but it doesn't matter now because as we'd all stood in my hospital room for the last time, saying our goodbyes they'd gone in for the kill. _

Ginny had brought me a new outfit accompanied by a sugary smile and my already packed Hogwarts' trunk. The blouse was fashionable and even a bit low cut. I was sure Victoire had played a hand in the get-up. Victoire had opened a shop in Hogsmeade before the start of last term, but I hadn't bothered to ask how it turned out. It wasn't that Mum wasn't fashionable enough to pick out something for me on her own, but she'd grown so used to wearing hand-me-downs I often had to remind her that they weren't really necessary.

"Leave them to those that really need them." I'd gently tell her trying to fake my best 'caring' voice and dragging her to Maureen's Cupboard for Stylish Witches.

So when I was dressed in my nice new top and pants, Ginny had spoken in a chirpy little voice as she motioned to my trunk. "There are some other new clothes that should fit you as well."

I turned on them with suspicious eyes.

"The portkey is almost ready." Harry reminded briskly avoiding my gaze and clapping his hands together with finality.

"And my wand?" I held my hand out expectantly. It hadn't been mentioned, but I'd assumed since I was going out into the real world that they'd have no choice but to give it back to me now. I really had no need for it in St. Mungos, but I was going to a Dragon Sanctuary for Merlin's sake!

They shared a look and my jaw clenched violently. I knew that look.

"No one knows what happened to it, Lyla." Harry's reply was anxious as he fiddled with his own wand. It was like rubbing salt in the wound.

"It's not like we're short on gold. We'll go to Diagon Alley and get a new one." I told them with an edge to my voice, daring them to defy me.

Ginny straightened up, shaking her hair off her shoulders. It was her version of a war cry. "We think it's best to just wait and see if it turns up on its own."

"Are you mad?!" My temper hit full force without a second to let them catch up. "You're sending to me to a DRAGON SANCTUARY… you know, with DRAGONS without a wand!? I can't believe the two of you have the audacity to call me nutters when you're the ones shipping your own flesh and blood to face dragons with nothing to defend me!"

Ginny leaned over to kiss me on the cheek so quickly I didn't have time to swat her away, and then Harry was shoving a Styrofoam cup in my hand and kissing my forehead.

"Don't be silly, Lyla." Harry said stepping back so as to not get caught up in the Portkey. "We'd never send you anywhere unprotected. An Auror has been assigned as your personal guard. Expect him tomorrow, you won't be allowed to leave the house without him."

I felt the pull in my navel as I marveled at their perfect execution of the kill strike. The last thing I saw as the world swirled out of focus was Ginny's smiling face and her last words- "Don't forget your manners, dear!"

_By the time I'd landed inside Charlie's home in Romania the Styrofoam cup had been decimated in my grasp. _

_They were tossers, both of them. It was completely brilliant, don't get me wrong, but I decided they deserved to be loathed for at least a solid week for their actions._

_I knew very well the real reason I wasn't allowed to have a new wand._

_It was punishment. _

_Of course they couldn't do it outwardly without seeming downright cruel, but the "bum that sold a million copies" was going to cost me a summer without magic. I'd been seventeen for nearly a sodding year, and now I was going to be as useless as a first year on summer holiday. Rubbish. _

_And an Auror guard!? That was just as much a punishment as anything else. I couldn't wait to have some arrogant, mouth-breathing, toerag shadowing my every move. Knowing Harry he'd be the oldest, fattest, most wart infested bloke I'd ever laid eyes on. _

_Okay, so I'd been in some trouble in the past and hadn't exactly warranted their trust, but hadn't I been through enough? I mean sure, there was the little matter of having no recollection of said events, but didn't my broken body count for anything? At the least I thought I deserved to be absolved of all past sins. _

_I had a habit of not giving Harry and Ginny enough credit, but they'd really grabbed the Snitch with this one... Waiting until they wouldn't have to deal with my reaction before dumping the news on me…absolutely genius. _

_Brilliant bloody tossers. _

_Double bullocks, _

_Lyla Potter_

**0000000**

Uncle Charlie and I had only had time for a quick reunion when I'd arrived before he'd been whisked away to some dragon emergency. It had given me plenty of time to pilfer through his belongings and thoroughly investigate the lodging that would be my new home for the next two months or so. There wasn't much to discover. And it wasn't less to look at.

The (hut, shack) charming abode was one rectangular room with each corner given a designated purpose: his small bed in one, the kitchenette in another, and a quaint sitting area in the third. I had no idea what the fourth corner had been, but now a hammock hung with my trunk tucked underneath it. I immediately regretted my sour feelings towards my former hospital bed. It looked like the nicest bedding gold could buy compared to my new accommodations.

There were no walls besides the brown ones that encased me, and in what looked like a last ditch attempt to win my affections, a dingy (obviously second hand) screen partition had been erected between Charlie's 'bedroom' and my own.

As hard as it was to believe, the sleeping arrangement was not the worst part. Oh, no. To my surprise and utter horror I had been absolutely on the mark when I'd thought that there would be no indoor plumbing.

There wasn't.

Harry and Ginny hadn't just sent me across Europe. No, apparently they'd sent me back in time. It was the only reasonable explanation for why I'd been sentenced to using an outhouse. The little hut Charlie had pointed out behind his house was the lavatory, and it wasn't even ours to use privately. Every outhouse was used by three residences in the village. We shared ours with the identical houses to the right and left of us.

The Auror still hadn't arrived by noon and I'd far past the stage of boredom. I traded one prison for another it seemed. At least in the hospital there were nurses I could mess with, and it had felt like I was doing something in a strange way.

The Healers had me taking about a million potions five times a day and even though my complexion was still rotten and face horribly scarred, I could literally watch as my figure slowly filled back in. I had always been skinny in all the right places, but it was about plumping back up the wrong ones. My poor chest and bum were mere shadows of their former selves.

I'd checked the door to find it sealed ages ago, but when my need to use the lavatory became overpowering I got creative.

Shimmying open the small window facing the lavatory outhouse, I was thankful for the first time of my new lack of curves. I wouldn't have fit otherwise.

I wasn't short, but the window was high and I had to drag Charlie's bedside cabinet over to stand on. It gave me the leverage I needed to pull myself through the slim opening.

All at once the sensation became too familiar and just like with the smell of the diary, my stomach rolled ominously. Desperately I pushed my body forward out of the window with no other thought than escaping, and I somersaulted in the air once before the ground smacked stars into my vision.

The pain kicked the need to purge my stomach straight out of my mind, and I was left to lie on the ground gasping for the breath that had been knocked out of me.

What the hell was that about?

I slowly stood to examine the window suspiciously. I could have easily managed to get through and land on my feet if I hadn't panicked halfway out. That had never happened before. And I was plenty familiar with sneaking out of windows.

The initial reason for my daring escape eventually made itself known again though, and I hurried into the outhouse without another glance back at whatever nightmares had just swooped into my wakeful mind.

Washing my hands after I finished I could not avoid the mirror.

The three distinct scars that ripped across my face were proud flesh- angry and puckered in their stubbornness. Harry and Ginny had assured me again and again that one day it would not be the most noticeable thing about my face, but it was hard to believe them as I took in my appearance.

My hands shook, and I realized I'd been gripping the sink.

That was another side effect from the injuries I could not remember earning. My hands were not fully obedient to my wishes any longer. They were rebellious and weak, often trembling and losing grip on the simplest of things. I would never be able to properly have tea again without rattling through every piece of fine china in Great Britain.

I felt it as soon as I exited the hut into the bright sun outside.

Someone was watching me.

My gaze snapped up to meet murky green irises.

A boy around my age was leaning against the back of Charlie's brown house right beside the window that had just attacked me.

Sturdy arms wrapped with taunt muscles crossed his broad chest, and his stare was as unabashed as mine as we sized each other up. Choppy dirty blonde hair was artfully groomed, and the only blemish to his handsome features was an old rugged scar that ran down his cheek.

I couldn't stop the longing stare as I focused on his scar. I could only dream that my own disfigurement would ever heal so gracefully.

"If you keep staring at me like that I'm going to get the wrong idea." His voice rumbled deep in his chest as if he hoped that I _was_ giving him the wrong idea.

He expected me to flush under his suggestive words, but no blush ever bloomed across my cheeks. I didn't embarrass so easily.

"You're the Auror." I eyed him evenly instead.

"The best of the best." His eyes narrowed with intrigue, whether at my words or my lack of reaction I didn't know.

"I would introduce myself, but you already know who I am. You can call me Lyla." I said pointedly, indicating it was his turn for an introduction.

He scoffed. "How unoriginal- a Lily with a nickname."

Irritated, I turned and resumed my walk briskly past the annoying bodyguard. There was no back entrance to the hut. The simple wooden door in front was the only one.

I stopped short.

There was another man sitting on the steps of the small porch. He looked up at my approach.

He was blonder than the other boy and the sharp features of his face made him seem more like a sculpture than reality. The Auror had been handsome, but this man was gorgeous. He looked like a man little girls dreamed up as Prince Charming.

I scowled, a little shocked by his appearance here because even if Prince Charming did exist he would not be the older boy standing in front of me.

"What are you doing here, Malfoy?"

His face was careful like every movement down to the slightest wrinkle of his eyes was calculated.

"I assumed you would be expecting me. Director Potter told me you had been informed. I'm assigned as your guard for the duration of the summer or until the culprits responsible for your abduction are detained."

Aggravated, I huffed. "Well then who wa-."

But I was cut off when the stranger from behind the hut walked around to join us. His path took him right in front of the real guard, and yet Malfoy's clear gray eyes never wavered from their stare at me.

The imposter was another freaking dead guy!

I really needed to make Lily run down the list of the deceased I should expect a visit from. These unannounced guests were going to get me into some real trouble. If I'd spoken to him in front Malfoy, I had no doubt that Harry's little puppet would be reporting immediately back to him.

"Good girl," rewarded the handsome dead boy, as if I was a puppy getting a treat. I fought the urge to turn a glare his way. If I had, all Malfoy would see was my furious glance into thin air. Not the best foot to start things out on. "You're learning."

"He did." I focused solely on Malfoy to keep from reacting to our unseen guest. I wasn't worried about offending Malfoy with my clipped responses. At Hogwarts we had been from different houses, and we'd seen the world in very different ways. "How'd you manage to get stuck with babysitting duty, Scorpius? Aren't you supposed to be some protégé or something- passing through Auror training quicker than anyone in the history of the department?"

"It's best if we stick to formalities, _Ms. Potter_." He replied shortly, leaving no doubt that I would not be allowed to call him Scorpius, which seemed ridiculous considering he was only two years older than me.

The bloke that the bodyguard couldn't see or hear made an unpleasant sound in the back of his throat. "Are they just letting in any old riffraff these days? Where's his charm and charisma?"

"I don't think that's a requirement," I responded without thinking then cursed my slip.

Thankfully, Malfoy thought I was talking about his formalities rule. "Actually it is, _Ms. Potter_."

"I'd think you were a very clever girl if you'd done that on purpose," the smirking dead boy commented, noting my response counted for both of their statements.

Malfoy turned around to grab his heavy looking trunk in an easy gesture, hinting at the muscled arms beneath his official robes.

I shot the imposter Auror a furious look, mouthing words silently at him. 'Be quiet!'

By the time Malfoy had turned back my face was organized in what I hoped was a pleasant non-crazy manner. "Charlie's flat isn't much. I suppose you'll have to take the couch."

Without a word Scorpius turned on his heel abruptly and marched his trunk to the identical hut on the right of Charlie's.

He spoke from the porch six long strides from where I stood.

"I've had to share a living space with Slytherins my whole life when I wasn't at Hogwarts. I don't plan on making it a habit again. The Auror Department was kind enough to rent me this-…house for the duration of my stay."

Scorpius Malfoy might have been as true as any Gryffindor, but the underlying snarl in his words was decidedly Malfoy and by default- indisputably Slytherin.

"What?" I lowered my voice to a seductive volume. "Afraid I'll bite?"

He remained stoic under my insinuation. "We're expected in Greece to meet Healer Prescott tomorrow so be ready to leave at 5am."

"In the morning?" I was outraged. My appointment wasn't until midmorning. "Are you planning on making me walk the whole way there? I have injuries, you know!"

"Yes, your _injuries _prevent the normal modes of wizard transportation like Apparation, and Portkeys are only allowed in or out of the reservation on special occasions. We'll be taking the Knight Bus." He scowled. It was his natural expression- the one I'd seen him wear the most at Hogwarts.

I wanted to tell him that his lips weren't meant to bow in defiance. They were far too pretty for that- the slightest bit thin, but perfectly arched.

His lips had been made to smirk.

Scorpius liked to be contrary though.

I didn't know if he had been born that way or it had happened the moment the Sorting Hat boldly declared 'Gryffindor!' to the shock of the Wizarding World. He took joy in suppressing his inherit Malfoy-ness, covering every smirk with a scowl and each selfish thought with a courageous act.

As it was, I didn't have time to tell him anything as he promptly entered his new home without waiting for my reply.

At Scorpius' departure I jerked back to glare at the man I knew was as dead as Lily Evans and Fred Weasley with every intention of giving him the scolding of a lifetime. He had disappeared too though without even the benefit of a tingle behind my ears.

I huffed, searching up and down the straight dirt road that was lined with identical houses to Charlie's.

It was deserted for the most part. Everyone was out past the fences doing their jobs.

The only remaining noise came from the rounded building that ended the road. It sat sudden and unmoving as if it had just been dumped right in the middle of the street one day. The large structure was traced with what seemed like hundreds of uneven windows of all shapes and sizes, allowing a perfectly clear view inside where a group of men and woman prepared food.

Slamming Charlie's door behind me (apparently the appearance of my guard had undone whatever charm sealed it), I stomped over to collapse on the dingy couch.

My summer was ruined! I was deformed, seeing dead people, and stranded in a place with no indoor plumbing. And the one person that was forced to interact with me was goody-two-shoes Malfoy.

I screamed into the musty fabric that I'd sunk my face into, venting my frustrations.

"This is going to be a lot more fun than I thought."

I squealed for a different reason this time, rolling off the couch and onto the floor in surprise. I clamored backwards like a startled crab before I realized the intruder was the dead guy from outside.

My eyes narrowed to tight slits as I struggled to regain my composure. "I'm so glad you're enjoying yourself. Now, who the bloody hell are you?"

His mouth turned attractively, not a smile or a grin or a smirk, but somehow all three at once.

"The name is Harland Simmons, but if you're a good girl- or maybe a very naughty one- I'll let you call me Baker."

0000000

**Author's Note****:** Don't hate me for the (semi) cliffhanger! If you're not familiar with Love and Other Tragedies then this chapter probably didn't do a lot for you, but Harland Simmons (aka Baker) will be more fully introduced in the next chapter. For those of you who've read LAOT: can we all just take a moment and bask in the wonderfulness that is having Baker back? I've missed writing him oh so much.

This is probably one of the shortest chapters I've ever posted, but it meant a faster update so don't flame me yet (just think of our beautiful Baker and all will be okay).


End file.
